Inspiration Archive
Inspirations and Expressions!
I experienced a fantastic performance on Black Friday. At the Tin Angel, I played my new song called Extraordinary. And the evening was extraordinary. Some friends attended the performance and shared their insight and inspiration.
The first line goes:
It’s the extraordinary that I find in the ordinary
One of the offered insights was that this song was directly correlated with the artist experience. Artists find the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Essentially an artist observes life and discovers it’s nature through their own direct experience with it. For example Da Vinci watched water in a stream, trying intently to capture what the movement of liquid looks like on a static page, amist discovering the water’s nature and disposition. Art comes out of observing and experiencing life and our own interpretation of it.
I paint with sound. I use a technique called looping. And like water in a stream, I discovered the nature of looping and layering my own voice. I added sound where it needed more color and body, and I also limited sound to add variety and simplicity.
Read Extraordinary Inspiration »
Harvesting Wrath
Fall harvests something in me—warrior-ship. I trained hard for six months. And I have been training Fitness and Tai Chi for over two years, with a small community of warriors. I train with my partner and instructor Steven Smith, World Tai Chi Boxing Association Instructor.
I stood in a check-out line at Big Lots. I chatted with a lovely, yet sprightly Great-Grandma. She carried two items to purchase. She enchanted my son Ronan with tricks of her trade, she clicked her tongue, smiled and tried to grab his hand. Ronan bashfully declined the hand grab. She told me that she had three Great-Grandchildren.
The person ahead of her finished and before we knew it—a middle aged frizzy-haired, thin and slightly stooped guy hissed to his companion, a younger, friendly looking woman, hurry up and cut in line. She was old enough to know better. The man wedged a cart, stocked full and brimming, in front of Great-Grandma. Wow! (Wrath.)
Read The Scabbard At My Side »
Mid-afternoon, I sit at the table with my guitar, wandering through a song. My baby Ronan, in his playpen right by my side, reaches out and slaps my guitar. I say to him, “Be gentle with the guitar, Ronan, gentle.”
I play. I sing. I wander through rhyming words, making meaning in song. I sing:
You may find yourself new, and if you do, you may like it…
Ronan starts crabbing and carrying on, so I sing to him:
Please help me, all the way through, ’cause if you do, it may happen to you too.
He was receptive. Ronan is an intelligent being. I explained to him that I write and sing songs — if I do the work that is meaningful to me, I can enjoy being present and playful. We can enjoy being together a whole lot more by doing what we love. When we live in harmony and listen to each other, we can be together.
Read Inspired Baby Hears Mommy Wandering »
When I feel stuck or crazy, I leave the house. I change my environment. Try it.
My environments offer such simple pleasures. I must be relaxed enough to enjoy them. Wandering without an agenda is a key to relaxing enough. With no destination, only the journey or the wander matters, as they say. It rejuvenates me to move my body because my mind follows my body’s lead. Movement relaxes my mind because it relaxes my body.
